ONE FROM THE MANY CREATING AN INSTRUCTION PROGRAM

ONE FROM THE MANY: CREATING AN INSTRUCTION PROGRAM WITH A DIVERSE GROUP OF LIBRARIANS Jennifer Snow, Librarian for Anthropology, Sociology, and WGSS; Program Director for Instruction at the Marx Library Yale University

MARX SCIENCE & SOCIAL SCIENCE LIBRARY 9 subject specialist librarians 1 GIS librarian 1 Data librarian 1 Manager of Stat. Lab

HOW IT STARTED Previously, each librarian was responsibility for their own instruction offerings: course-integrated sessions, workshops, consultations, etc. Summer 2019: reorganization of Marx (then called CSSSI); need for coordinators of certain functions were identified August 2019: Program Director of Instruction named and given responsibility for creating a cohesive approach to instruction

INSTRUCTION GROUPS Using a post-it note activity, we have created groups for specific tasks within instruction In 2020, this was repeated virtually using Mural After each semester, I solicit feedback from the librarians to see what is working, what needs tweaking, what questions and/or concerns people have; Padlet has been very helpful for the feedback sessions

INSTRUCTION GROUPS Best Practices, Learning Objects, Instruction Menu were identified for 2019/2020 Best Practices group allowed us to create common language and learning objectives for workshops taught by multiple librarians Learning Objects group started working on best practices for video creation, and this group has continued into 2020/2021 Instruction Menu group created a menu for faculty to choose from to develop a customized workshop (the launch of this has been delayed due to wider library initiatives)

2020

INSTRUCTION GROUPS FOR 2020/2021 Assessment, Unmediated Instruction (Learning Objects), Video, Asynchronous Instruction These were created by recreating our Post-It activity using the Mural platform

A TEST IN FLEXIBILITY All instruction groups still managed to reach many of their goals they had set in Fall 2019 Workshops saw a large increase over Summer and early Fall 2020 I assisted individual librarians with the move to virtual instruction as needed Workshops started to see less attendance toward the end of Fall 2020

NEW APPROACH FOR SPRING 2021 Scaffold some of our workshops: Zotero, Google Scholar Lightning round workshops: task-focused, 15 minutes

ASSESSMENT So, is this approach working, and how can we tell?

ASSESSMENT Lib. Insights tracks our statistics: each semester, I pull our statistics and put together a presentation for Marx and other units within YUL Graduate students are our largest audience Stat. Lab, GIS, citation management remain popular year-round The new, scaffolded workshops and the bite-size lightning rounds have increased attendance Assessment survey is sent to workshop attendees

CHALLENGES Everyone has their own approach to instruction This is peer-to-peer coordination; I am not the supervisor I still have my subject specialist duties on top of coordinating instruction Marx is a mix of subject specialists and DGS (data, GIS, and statistics) librarians

BENEFITS Creating a community of practice and learning from each other An opportunity to collaborate with colleagues you may not normally Increase in attendance to workshops Ability to offer series of workshops instead of just a one-off

NEXT STEPS Hybrid approach to teaching will continue: virtual and in-person options More workshop series to come in Fall: Research Lifecycle; Economic Statistics More scaffolding and bite-size workshops in Fall Assessment will become more robust: new survey for attendees; more holistic approach throughout Marx activities Work more closely with other programs and initiatives within YUL

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?